Changes
Changes is a 7th season episode of House which first aired on May 2, 2011. Arlene Cuddy returns and House and Cuddy's jobs are in danger when Arlene threatens to sue the hospital. Cuddy, House and Wilson decide that appeasement is the best course of action, but when they take a conciliatory approach, Arlene's demands for compensation keep escalating. Meanwhile, House and the team treat a recent lottery winner who has reunited with an old girlfriend who Thirteen thinks is just interested in the patient's new found wealth. Recap A man arrives at a house with flowers. An attractive woman answers, but tries to brush him off. He says he is looking for someone named Jennifer Williams he knew 23 years before, but she just shuts the door on him. The man crosses a name off the list, walks back to his limo and the driver, his cousin, tells him he’s wasting his time looking for a past love. All of a sudden, the man collapses and says he can’t move his leg. The limo driver calls at the woman to call 911. House tells the team that the man has partial paralysis, but there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with his brain. Taub reads the chart and realizes the patient just won $42 million in a lottery. He and House argue about if that much money can prevent misery. As they discuss the differential diagnosis, Cuddy comes in to tell House that her mother’s lawyer has called threatening to sue the hospital. House orders an environmental scan and medical history and returns to his office to discuss the matter with Cuddy’s mother. It turns out that the lawsuit is probably because Cuddy and her mother had a fight because her mother’s new hip replacement is making her far less mobile and Cuddy wanted her mother to live with her until she got better. Cuddy reminds House how badly he acted during her case and that the mother insists on dealing with both Cuddy and House. However, House refuses to attend the meeting. The patient tells the doctors he hasn’t changed his lifestyle and he doesn’t use drugs. However, the patient eats a lot of canned food. Meanwhile, Chase and Foreman are at the patient’s old workshop discussing Cuddy’s mom’s threat to sue. Chase tells Foreman that he has to be less repressed. Chase then reveals he hasn’t slept with a woman for over a month because he wants to be ready when the right woman comes along. Chase challenges Foreman to go through one differential without letting anyone get under his skin. Foreman points out that Chase has already said he represses his feelings so he can’t prove people aren’t getting under his skin. Chase says that he will just have to let that fact eat at him too. Chase finds a can of solvent. Taub thinks that the canned food points to heavy metal poisoning, but Chase thinks he’s inhaled a toxin. Thirteen points out that the treatment for both is chelation. However, House orders forced urination for heavy metals and, if that doesn’t work, dialysis for solvent inhalation. When the team objects, and Foreman gets upset, House reminds them that chelation won’t tell them what the real diagnosis was so they can prevent re-exposure. Foreman gives in. However, Thirteen decides to go with chelation anyway. She figures House won’t check and they can just flip a coin. However, when she arrives at the patient’s room, she has found that Cuddy has withdrawn House’s hospital privileges. Cuddy’s strategy is to force House to the bargaining table with her mother. Instead, House discharges the patient. Thirteen explains to the patient that it will only be for a few minutes until Cuddy folds. However, the patient sees an attractive woman and tells his limo driver and the doctors to shut up. The woman is Jennifer Williams, his old sweetheart. She admits she heard about his lottery win. They go to hug, but the patient vomits even though he doesn’t feel nauseous. Thirteen realizes the patient is having a focal seizure and can’t be discharged. The patient obviously has a brain issue, but both of their previous diagnoses have to be wrong given the new symptom. Cuddy comes in to negotiate with House to get him to meet her mother, but they can’t come to an agreement. Cuddy says she doesn’t care if he treats his patient or comes to the meeting and walks out. To prove to Foreman that his a “boiling cauldron of repressed rage”, Chase hooks up Foreman to a blood pressure monitor. House insults Foreman’s diagnosis of Lyme disease, his ex-girlfriend, and brings up his brother Marcus Foreman, but Foreman’s blood pressure stays steady. The team gets back to the differential. Taub and Thirteen discuss about whether finding his old girlfriend was a good thing. Thirteen finally suggests herpes encephalitis. House agrees and orders tests to confirm and treatment. He also reveals he removed the leads to Foreman’s blood pressure cuff. Foreman was faking the monitor results. Foreman obviously gets angry and gets up to leave. House talks with Thirteen about the fact she now shares his view that life is miserable. The patient and Jennifer are laughing together, but Thirteen tells her that she is going to have to leave the room for the test. Jennifer says she has to get home the next morning. The patient offers to put her up in a hotel, but Jennifer is reluctant. She does agree to say for another couple of nights in her own motel. House goes to see Wilson about the patient. Wilson agrees that it’s probably cancer and that the patient’s symptoms are caused by paraneoplastic syndrome. However, House is really there to see why Wilson isn’t mad at him for not meeting with Cuddy’s mom. Wilson says that he’s supporting House because he’s right - both Cuddy and her mother are trying to use House to get in the middle of the argument they are having. However, House thinks Cuddy insisted on him being there so he wouldn’t come to the meeting and that Cuddy really doesn’t want him there. Cuddy’s mother and her Lawyer come in to meet with Cuddy. The lawyer asks where House is, but Cuddy tells them that it’s not really about House, but about the fight she‘s having with her mother. The lawyer won’t leave the room, but Cuddy’s mother tells him to leave. Cuddy’s mom tells her it’s not about the fight they had. She wants $30,000 to hire help while she recovers and put in a stair lift. Cuddy tells her that if she gives in, the Board of Directors will investigate and both she and House could lose their medical licenses. House finally arrives and threatens to put her old hip joint back in. Cuddy’s mother leaves and says she will get a judge to take her seriously. While they do a CT Scan of the patient, Foreman tells Taub he faked his blood pressure because he had a lot of salt with breakfast. Taub thinks Foreman is repressed too and thinks it’s good that Chase has stopped sleeping around. They find a tumor, and quickly find two others. It appears he has three completely different types of cancer. Wilson is calling House an idiot for breaking into the discussion and accuses him of going there just because Cuddy tried to trick him not to. Wilson tells House he’s going to force him to meet with Cuddy before Cuddy’s mom files a lawsuit. Chase hooks Foreman up to the blood pressure monitor again and then takes an oath that Foreman has not screwed with it. When House suggests making the patient’s tumors grow faster, Foreman’s blood pressure shoots up and although he’s acting calm, it’s obvious he’s slowly getting out of control. He rips off the monitor cuff and Thirteen suggests he make out a will. House finally goes ahead with his plan to make the cancer grow faster. He also has a surprise for Thirteen - her high school boyfriend is waiting outside his office. Thirteen tells House that Ricky dumped her after she slept with his sister. House tells her to let him down gently. Taub and Thirteen go to the patient to get consent. The patient asks Jennifer to marry him. She tells him he only thinks he loves her and they need more time. However, Thirteen is suspicious - Jennifer says she only came for one night, but she’s wearing different clothes every day. House finds Foreman doing yoga on the office balcony. Foreman says he needs to get a hooker for Chase. He asks why House keeps riding him, but not Chase. He tells him it’s because he can make Foreman mad, but he can’t make Chase horny. He tells Foreman to embrace Zen because he can’t do anything about his own anger or Chase’s libido. Wilson and Cuddy corner House in a patient room. Wilson wisely put a tracker on House’s portable television. Cuddy and House get into an argument about their break up. Wilson reminds them that it’s both of their fault. He tells them that he’s driving them both to Arlene’s house so that Cuddy can write a check and House can apologize. He threatens to cut off House’s Vicodin and House caves. The patient is showing no new symptoms, and he challenges Thirteen’s belief that Jennifer is just after his money. The patient says his hope that he would win the lottery and reconnect with Jennifer was all that kept him going. Now, he’s halfway there. He tells her that she can’t stand to see anyone happy. Wilson, Cuddy and House arrive at Arlene’s house. Cuddy gives her a check and House ekes out an apology. Arlene asks for more money to change her will to cut Cuddy out. Wilson tries to be conciliatory, but Cuddy and her mom get into another fight. Cuddy’s mom rips up the check. Foreman sees Chase sidling up to a new nurse. However, Foreman has already paid her $100 to slap Chase once he propositions her. However, when it appears Chase is about to close, nothing happens and the nurse comes over, gives back the money and slaps Foreman instead. Chase sees Foreman and waves at him. Taub does an ultrasound while the patient discusses his will. Jennifer tells him that she doesn’t need anything and encourages him to give the money to his family or favorite charities. However, although they’ve been pumping him with drugs to make the three tumors grow, they all shrank instead. Foreman tries the blood pressure monitor again. As they go through a new differential, Foreman’s blood pressure rises again and he insists it can’t be right. When they press the matter, Foreman tells them he took beta blockers to keep his blood pressure low. Chase admits he was rigging the last two tests. House insists on a diagnosis of amyloidosis and orders a biopsy to confirm and chemotherapy to treat. Cuddy quadruples House’s clinic hours. House goes to the clinic and starts making a nuisance of himself. Wilson comes to commiserate. He also tells House that Cuddy’s mom wants to meet again, but he realizes neither Cuddy nor House want to meet her. Wilson tells House that he’s being obstinate because he doesn’t want Cuddy out of his life and he is willing to have bad interactions instead of living with no interactions. He reminds him that he’s not risking just his job, but any future relationship he might have with Cuddy. The patient gives his cousin a cheque for $10 million because Jennifer had reminded him that he was the person who was with him year in and year out all their lives. When Jennifer starts crying, Thirteen realizes she’s wearing tinted contact lenses under her glasses. The patient realizes that “Jennifer” doesn’t have brown eyes and starts questioning her. He starts to realize she’s not the woman he was in love with. He realizes his cousin has been coaching "Jennifer" to con him out of his lottery money, by convincing him to write a check to his cousin who has always been there. He throws them both out. He admits to Thirteen she was right. All of a sudden, the patient starts crashing. The patient suffered a cardiac arrest along with failure of the lungs and liver before they even had a chance to start chemotherapy, ruling out amyloidosis. All of a sudden, they hear an evacuation alarm. Everyone is outside with Cuddy trying to direct everything when her mother shows up. She says it was the only way to get Cuddy and House together. Cuddy tells her staff that they that can re-open the hospital. The mother tells Cuddy and House she is going to file her lawsuit that day. Cuddy and the mother get into another argument. Finally, House pipes up and tells the mother that he and Cuddy are not getting back together. When Cuddy asks him what he’s talking about, he tells her it’s the only explanation for her mother’s behavior. She’s trying to get him and Cuddy to unite against her. Cuddy insists that her mother is just acting out of anger over a long series of perceived slights, but when she looks back at her mother, it becomes clear House was right. She tells them they’re idiots and neither one of them is going to find anyone else who will put up the other one. Cuddy realizes that when she asked her mother to move in with her, the mother realized that she and House weren’t going to reconcile. Cuddy tells her it will take more than a common enemy to get her and House back together. Arlene tells her that her standards are impossible. House has already left. House goes to see the patient - the talk of a common enemy made him think of something. The patient has a teratoma, a usually harmless type of congenital growth that just contains cells that aren’t where they are supposed to be. However, his teratoma contains brain cells, which have spread and caused brain symptoms. Some broke off and grew new tumors, but they grew so fast they collapsed. He just needs surgery to remove them. Chase and Nurse Laura are seen in bed together. Foreman is still trying to relax. The patient is recovering after his surgery when the real Jennifer comes to see him. Thirteen and House see her with the patient and they agree that it will end horribly for the patient, but he will always have hope and be happy. House suggests to Thirteen that she’s miserable not because of any predisposition, but because of the death of her mother, brother and her own illness. Thirteen tells him he’s probably unhappy because of his failed rehab, failed relationships, and painful leg. Zebra Factor 6/10 Teratomas appear in about one out of every 40,000 people, but are usually asymptomatic. Trivia *House insults Foreman’s diagnosis of Lyme disease, his ex-girlfriend and his brother. When House said then his shared a motel room with his ex-girlfriend the ex-girlfriend actually refer to Thirteen. In the episode The Dig House did share a room with Thirteen in a motel after Thirteen release from jail. *“Khloe” is most likely a reference to Khloe Kardashian, the youngest of the Kardashian sisters. *House’s reference to Foreman turning green and bursting out of his shirt describes The Incredible Hulk, Video thumb|300px|left|Money and happiness thumb|300px|left|Malpractice thumb|300px|left|Reconciliation and negotiation thumb|300px|left|Lucky Category:Episodes Category:Season 7 Category:Huddy